Ride-Hailing Apps & Services: Millennials are Paving a New Path for Mobility

While car-sharing has been around for a while – Zipcar began operations in 2000 – most of these shared mobility services are relatively new. But there’s a good reason Uber and ride-hailing are top of mind for consumers. Ride-hailing services are more popular than other types of mobility options. They’re used much more frequently than ride-sharing services, for example, with 89% of respondents to ReportLinker’s survey saying they’ve hailed a ride, compared to just 8.8% who say they use ride-sharing

When asked about ride-hailing services, more than half of Americans would spontaneously cite Uber, according to new research from ReportLinker. The ride-hailing service was mentioned by 63% of respondents in unaided questions, and 97% of the time in aided responses.

While it has been a tough year for Uber, struggling with management and leadership issues, no wonder the company has been successful at generating awareness and building a strong brand name.

That Uber’s brand is top of mind among consumers is notable, both because shared mobility services are poised to disrupt the transportation market in a big way and because ride-hailing services are just one of several shared mobility options:

Car-sharing services, offer drivers the ability to lease an automobile for a few hours per day.

Ride-sharing services, enable riders to share trips with others going the same way.

Ride-hailing services, such as Uber, are notable for disrupting the taxi industry and are predicted to do the same to the automotive industry. These services enable passengers to hail freelance drivers using their own cars to transport riders on short trips.

Bike-sharing services are similar to car-sharing, in which users pay nominal amounts to rent a bicycle for an hour or two.

Beyond Uber, brands American consumers recognize most are Lyft, which was mentioned by 75% of respondents in aided questions and 11% of the time in combination with Uber in unaided responses. Millennials, who have a higher comfort-level with ride-hailing services than older generations, demonstrated strong name recognition of top brands, with Uber (99%), Lyft (80%), and ZipCar (35%) at the top of the list.

Millennials Catch a Ride

When Millennials head out to meet friends for an evening of socializing, they will pull out their phones, open an app, and summon a ride-hailing service like Uber, 70% of the time.

Millennials also tend to use ride-hailing services more frequently than other generations, with 15% saying they use such services as much as 2-5 times per week. By comparison, 69% of other generations say they summon cars once a month or less.

For this digitally native generation, ride-sharing services are attractive because they offer a fast way to commute and correspond well with the way young people use technology in their daily consuming behavior, ReportLinker says. It’s no wonder Millennials are embracing shared mobility in larger numbers.

All Hail Ride-Hailing

Convenience is the top reason given by American consumer for using hailing rides from Uber and similar services. The ability to simply open an app and call a car to the nearest curb is appealing to 60% of US respondents, while the short waiting time comes in the second position cited 42% by users of ride-hailing services, according to the ReportLinker survey. Reduced transportation cost dropped significantly being listed only 16% by our respondents in this new survey comparing to 34% in November 2016.

Yet, there are still concerns. Personal safety, number one concern in our previous survey come now after data privacy and data security which altogether seems to worry more than half American respondents.

Overall, however, riders appear to be happy with their experience using shared mobility services. The average satisfaction score for users of ride-hailing services like Uber is 4.31 on a 5 point-scale. Among the reasons they say they’re pleased with the company, they choose to use include the wide accessibility of the service (52%), the ease of payment (29%), and the low cost (13%).

Impact on the Future of Travel

Ride-hailing services, led by Uber, have significantly disrupted the personal transportation industry. One of the significant findings of this study is that Millennials are embracing ride-sharing services with greater ease than older generations. Their preference for mobility options that are fast, easy-to-use, cost-effective and environmentally friendly are certain to reshape the future of travel.

The automobile sector is now getting huge interests into these new models and what it potentially means for the future of automobile ownership. Both traditional players like Toyota and automotive startups such as Teslahave plans to enter the shared mobility market.

Over the lasts months, technology companies like Uber and Lyft seem to have increased their advantage from their first mover position into this market. 63% of US respondents say they’re more confident in technology companies and their ability to provide positive experiences for users of shared mobility services. This is a significant increase of 5 points compared to our previous conducted in November 2016.

This survey conducted by ReportLinker reached 582 online respondents representative of the US population. All respondents were very or somewhat familiar with shared mobility services. Interviews were conducted on September 6th.